Plot To Impeach Al-Makura : Lawmakers Flee Nasarawa .Some Set to Back Out as Move Backfires .Senator Abdullahi Adamu Writes House of - Assembly The 20 lawmakers who signed the impeachment notice against Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura have abandoned the state, following the massive protests over their plot, Sunday Trust investigation in the past one week has shown. The tempo of protests from people of all political affiliations, including from the PDP, who have continued to sustain their anger against the impeachment proceedings, has become a threat to the lawmakers. In Toto, Nasarawa-Eggon and Keana, supporters of the PDP were reported to have joined, and in some cases, even led the protests, saying the public good made possible by the administration of Al-Makura was manifest in their areas. The lawmakers saw that their position was not popular. Although a lawmaker Baba Ibaku had claimed, when he spoke on phone mid last week, that “we are very much around,” Sunday Trust learnt reliably that not one of the lawmakers was anywhere around the state since Monday when they passed the motion. On the Day Two of the protest, which has grounded many businesses across the state, a violent confrontation between supporters of the lawmakers and those opposed to them ensued in Lafia, leading to the reported killing of two persons, although the police have said no one was killed in the fight. But the police confirmed that a private residence of a politician in Lafia was set ablaze during the protest. This is just as political leaders and paramount rulers in the state are putting immense pressures on the lawmakers to relax the plot. Sources said it is not safe for the legislators to return to the state, as any attempt by any one of them to enter Nasarawa now might heighten public anger against them. Minutes after the lawmakers rushed out of the complex of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly (NSHA) along Shendam Road, where they commenced the impeachment proceedings, they hurriedly left Lafia for Abuja where they were said to have been holed up in three different hotels, Sunday Trust inquiries have shown. The House, last Monday, reconvened from an on-going recess at an emergency session, and passed a motion of impeachment, alleging various breaches of the provisions of the constitution against Al-Makura, including misappropriation of funds from 2011 and 2014, as well as allegations gross misconduct and abuse of office processes. Twenty out of the 24 lawmakers, all of them of the PDP, signed the impeachment notice, containing 16-count charges. Although much of the meetings held in Abuja since then have remained unproductive, investigations have, however, revealed that the development back home, where the state is witnessing increased tension, leading to Thursday’s violent clash between the anti, and pro-impeachment protesters in Lafia, may have compelled a rethink by some lawmakers who are already believed to be putting pressures on their colleagues to withdraw the notice and save the state from another wave of bloodshed. Sources have said the Presidency and the national leadership of the PDP, earlier reported to have influenced the impeachment plot with the connivance of PDP top shots in Abuja, may have considered relaxing their influence on the 20 lawmakers after a wave of angry protests greeted the Monday proceedings. But sources still added that a handful of certain powerful persons from the state, with good links to the Presidency are bent on pushing the execution of the controversial plot to limits. They are said to have said at various meetings that the state will heal after all, from the shockwave of the public anger greeting the impeachment proceedings. “Everybody is backing out. But very few Abuja politicians have insisted that the protesters will get tired of protesting, and that people will soon forget about the issue and continue with normal life,” said a source. Meanwhile, emirs from the state have poured into Abuja, to join in the fray of the intrigues there. But sources said the paramount rulers, who undertook to meet with the 20 lawmakers, to put pressures on them to withdraw their plot, have met with none of them because the lawmakers rushed out of their sanctuaries in the three Abuja hotels, and headed to Lagos. The Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai I, had announced earlier when he addressed protesters in Lafia for calm, just as he signed a communiqué stating that the council of chiefs had mandated the traditional rulers to talk the various lawmakers from their domain into dropping the move to save the state from the prospect of a fresh wave of crisis. The intrigues and the turn of events has unsettled the deputy governor, Dameshi Barau Luka, who is on his way to becoming the governor in the event the impeachment plot succeeds. Luka, on March 3, dumped the APC for the PDP, alleging his boss betrayed him, and sparking heightened speculations that the development was a necessary stage to lead to Al-Makura’s impeachment so that the PDP will take over with him as the governor. Daily Trust.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 14:20:47 +0000
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